I Don't Hate Rawlings; I Only.... - Kweku Baako

Editor-In-Chief of theNew Crusading Guidenewspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, has finally opened up on why he seems to have a strong aversion to former President Jerry John Rawlings.

According to him, though he does not hate Mr Rawlings as a person, he dislikes the way the former president does his politics.

The Senior Journalist was compelled to explain his obvious detestation of Mr Rawlings following a submission by Deputy Chief of Staff, Alex Segbefia, which sought to create the impression that Mr. Baako tends to verbally attack the Rawlingses when the issue has to do with what has been said about former President John Agyekum Kufuor by his predecessor.

The two, panelists on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, were discussing statements made by Mr Rawlings on Corruption at the Freedom Power Lecture Wednesday night.

In the wake of Mr. Segbefia’s claim, Mr. Baako took ample time to dispel the notion that he harbors some form of hatred in his heart towards Mr. Rawlings and why he has always been perhaps one of his harsh critics.

Stopping short of singing his praises, Kweku Baako rather had some polite words to say about the NDC’s founder describing him “as one of the most affable persons you can ever come across”.

Sounding a bit nostalgic, the one-time GJA Best Journalist of the Year stated that if there was anything in his life he wished he could erase; it would be his involvement in the struggle to free ex-president Rawlings during the AFRC era.

According to him, ex-president Rawlings broke the code when he bounced back onto the political scene to overthrow a constitutionally elected government.

“As a young militant, young man full of energy…we took the risk at the peril of our lives, when he (Rawlings) was in custody, to be roaming in the barracks at midnight, putting leaflets under doors, writing slogans on walls and asking for the release of Jerry Rawlings otherwise trouble. We said “Revolution or Death”…there was a stage we were arrested by soldiers and lined up…midnight with guns on us and then the explosion occurred and people like us were in the front line of that explosion and assisted to prosecute the three months of the AFRC regime…i'm looking back and what would the Kutu Acheampong, Afrifa and others be saying?...people like us who were in the front line shouting let the blood flow, I was there…there are Daily Graphic pictures, I see myself as a very tiny element there and I want to rub it off. I don’t want to point it out to people that it is me there but i'm there and it would be there forever,” Mr. Baako lamented.

He continued; “The whole idea was...let constitutional rule be sustained regardless of the imperfections, every four years let's go and change that government…corruption, mismanagement and everything, we cure the mischief through the ballot. We all agreed on this, two years, three months down the line; you (Rawlings) go and overthrow it. And in the process, some of us resisted upon basis of principle. We were busted, incarcerated and tortured. No trial, not charged nor put before a court or a tribunal."